Rise of a hero
by einstinstalin
Summary: One day Naruto stumbles upon an abandoned building that sets him on the path of a hero. Smarter Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

8 year old Naruto was exploring the woods surrounding the leaf village when he found it. If he had to guess he would say that it was destroyed by some explosion. From the amount of plants growing no one had been here in years. In front of the house were a few strangely shaped Kunai. "_These look interesting. I've never seen a Kunai shaped like this." _Naruto thought. He picked up the closest one to inspect it closer. Along the handle was a seal of some kind. "_I wonder what this does? It seems to be on all of them." _Being unable to make anything of it he slipped it into his pocket and went to explore the house.

Sifting through the wreckage Naruto found a few scrolls and a book with a barely burnt cover. Naruto wiped off the cover to read the title. **Tales of a gutsy ninja by Jiraiya**. Opening the cover Naruto read the autograph in the front cover. _To my favorite student, I always knew you would go far. _Naruto's biggest surprise came when he read the name of the name of the main character. _"The main characters name is Naruto? That's so cool!" _Finally noticing that it was getting dark Naruto started to make his way home.

Wanting to avoid the whispers and angry glares from the villagers Naruto decided to sneak back to his apartment. It took extra time and Naruto could hardly contain his excitement but eventually he made it home. Once he was home he immediately opened up the book to start reading. Once he started he couldn't stop. It was late into the night before he finally put it down. He was only halfway through the book but knew that he needed to get some sleep to go through the rest of the scrolls he found. If the book was anything to go by the scrolls must contain something important.

If he was excited finding the book he was the exact opposite with the scrolls. Of the three scrolls he had two were too complex for him to understand. _"Man, I was hoping this would be some sort of super cool Jutsu I could use to become hokage._" Opening the final scroll he found katas for a Taijutsu style. "_This isn't a Jutsu but it could be useful."_ Based on the katas and notes in the scroll it relied on speed and flexibility above all else. Deciding to train with it when he had more info Naruto turned his attention to the Kunai.

Remembering a book on weapons in the library this was were he went next. The librarian gave him a dirty look when he entered. He ignored the look and goes straight for the book he needed. **History of Shinobi weapon**. It took almost an hour of searching but he finally found a picture of the tri-pronged Kunai. _These Kunai were primarily used by the leaf villages fourth hokage known throughout the world as the yellow flash. He was known for his use of space time Jutsu based around special seals the Kunai. _Naruto's eyes widened. "_That stuff was from the fourth. The Kunai must be one for his Jutsu. That means it's like I'm learning right from the fourth himself. The other scrolls might be notes on one of his Jutsu. I need to learn more about him._

Over the next couple of hours Naruto every piece of information he could find on the fourth hokage. From there he moved onto the **Hiraishin no Jutsu** and he finally he read up on the creator of the jutsu second hokage Tobirama Senju. The more information he found the more convinced he was that the notes in the scrolls were the fourths notes on the jutsu. From all his research the technique required skill in the art of fuinjutsu or the art of sealing and a high mastery at that. _"I've managed to find notes to my heroes most powerful jutsu. I need to learn this. This will bring me one step closer to my goal of becoming hokage."_naruto thought.For one of the few times in his short life Naruto felt like the luckiest kid in the world. Now all he needed was a plan.

While Naruto was currently in the academy he needed something more. The first step to mastering the jutsu was fuinjutsu. Naruto checked out every book on the subject available. Even still it wasn't enough. Naruto decided to master the Taijutsu style as well. For this he needed help but he had no idea who to ask for help from. The most obvious choice being Jiji but he was a busy man. Besides Jiji he didn't really know any Shinobi besides Iruka Sensei but this wasn't his area of expertise. Even if he couldn't help personally the old man might know someone who could help.

Hiruzen Sarutobi always felt as though he didn't do enough. He felt responsible for the villages involvement in the third great ninja war. He felt responsible for Minato's death but most of all he felt responsible for the poor treatment of Minato's son by the villagers. He tried to keep the poor treatment to a minimum. He had ANBU agents watch over him for a time to keep him safe from attacks. After the first few executions the assassination attempts stopped. That didn't stop the angry glares or the harsh words. Hiruzen tried to give Naruto a normal life by hiding his status from the younger generation but that didn't stop parents from keeping their children from interacting with him. Luckily some of the shinobi from the clans didn't mind Naruto but still he wished he could give him more. Today he would get his chance.

Naruto walked right into the hokage's office. The old man was sitting at his desk doing paperwork. "Hey Jiji hows it going." Naruto exclaimed. Hiruzen smiled. It always made him happy to see Naruto's smile. "Hello Naruto, is there something I can help you with?" Hiruzen asked. "I was just looking for someone to help me with taijutsu and some physical conditioning. There's this style I'm trying to learn and I need to faster to use it effectively." Naruto explained. Hiruzen was curious but at the same time he saw a chance to help the child he saw as a surrogate grandson. "It just so happens that I have the perfect teacher. He's a little strange but one of the most powerful ninja in this village. As long as you put your all into you training I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping you out." Naruto bounced up and down excited. "I can't wait when can I meet him?" Naruto asked excitedly. Naruto's reaction made Hiruzen chuckle. "Tell you what you just show up at training ground 13 at 7am and he'll meet you." Naruto was excited but he was also nervous. "Don't worry Naruto he would never judge you unfairly." With a smile Naruto left the office.

Currently Naruto was sitting at his favorite spot in the village watching the sunset. Whenever he could Naruto watched the sunset from on top The fourth's stone face. It started as a way to escape the loneliness of his life but became something more. Whenever he felt angry or sad about thing he sat and remembered his heroes sacrifice and as he looked on the peaceful beauty of the village he wanted to protect this place. But today was different. Today all he could think about was how tomorrow would make or break his Shinobi career._ I can hardly wait._

**First chapter thoughts?**

**I am leaning towards an Naruto/Ino pairing but if I like one that is suggested then I might use it.**

**Naruto won't be overpowered but as you can see he will be more mature and smarter but nothing crazy.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for all the grammar issues in the last chapter.**

**Thanks for you feedback.**

Naruto got to the training ground an hour early for his first training session. He had the foresight to bring along the scroll on the fourth hokages taijutsu style. To his surprise someone was already there training. It seemed to be a Jonin doing push-ups on one finger. Taking in his entire appearance he was wearing a flak jacket over g a green jumpsuit and had a bowl cut but the most prominent feature was his giant eyebrows.

'_Well, the hokage did say I would recognize him right away.'_Naruto thought."Excuse me but are you by any chance my Sensei."

As soon as the jonin heard that he jumped up in the air and struck a weird pose."Yosh, my name is Might Guy Konoha's handsome green beast. The springtime of your youth shines bright. Introduce yourself my young friend." At the end of his speech Guy gave Naruto a thumbs up and smile that naruto swore sparkled at him.

"My names Naruto, it's my dream to be the greatest hokage and gain the respect of the village" Naruto said.

"Such a youthful goal my young friend it would be my honor to assist you but first you must show me your passion through a youthful spar." Guy exclaimed. He immediately rushed at Naruto. Naruto only had time for his eyes to widen before the first hit came. He fell back on his butt and barely had time to dodge the kick that came his way. He rolled to the left and immediately kicked out his leg hoping to catch Guy off guard. Guy expertly dodged and moved back. Naruto saw this as the time to go on the offensive. No matter what he threw at Guy he managed to dodge every blow. Suddenly Guy lashed out and kicked Naruto in the chest. Naruto was tired and bruised but he got up ready to attack again.

"That's enough, that was a most excellent display my young friend." Guy yelled.

"I didn't land a single hit on you. How was that good?" Naruto asked.

"True but the most important thing is you never gave up. That is the mark of a true shinobi." Naruto absorbed the word of his strange new sensei. While not the coolest looking Guy sensei was powerful and wise in his own way. "Now your training can really begin. Do you have a style you wish to learn because if not my own personal style might work for you."

Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll and held it out to Guy. "I recently found this and I hoped you could help me master it." Guy took the scroll and read it over.

"An most youthful choice the **hummingbird style** used by the fourth hokage. You don't yet have the speed to use it properly but that's nothing training can't fix. For the rest of today we'll work on physical training to increase your speed and strength." Guy said.

By the time Naruto returned home he was dead on his feet. All he wanted to do was sleep forever but armed with Guys advice never to give up he got up and moved over to start on the fuinjutsu books. He was now more motivated than ever to learn the **hiraishin**. His first step would be the beginning level of fuinjutsu. Naruto read through the first book just to get the basic concepts down. Before finally sleeping he practiced writing his kanji.

The next day it was back to the academy. When he entered the class he saw that it was mostly empty. He sat in the back next to the window and opened his fuinjutsu book. He didn't look up again until someone sat next to him. To his surprise he saw Shikamaru on his left and Choji next to him. He didn't know them that well but they at least didn't make fun of him or anything. He returned his attention to the book and next thing he knew it was lunch. Shikamaru and Choji chose to sit by him at lunch as well. Ino and Sakura also sat with them. It was Ino who talked to him first.

"What are you reading Naruto?" Everyone at the table turned to look at him.

"You were reading it in class too." Choji added.

"It's a book on fuinjutsu" Naruto answered. Choji and Ino had confused looks on their faces.

"What's fuinjutsu" Choji asked.

"Fuinjutsu is the art of sealing. It is one of the least understood of the shinobi arts. The fourth hokage was a seal master. It's way too complicated for someone like you to understand Naruto." Sakura stated.

"I'm learning about it for something I'm working on. It might not come to anything but I am fascinated by it. I'm almost done with this book if anyone else wants to study fuinjutsu." Naruto offered.

"It would be too troublesome to try." Shikamaru sighed. Sakura was the only one who seemed to seriously consider it but in the end decided against it. After that Naruto found himself included in the conversations more and more. Naruto found himself enjoying himself at the academy for the first time in awhile.

The rest of class went similar to the first half with Naruto reading, Shikamaru sleeping and Choji eating. At the end of the day Naruto said goodbye to his new friends and headed to his training with Guy. Guy helped him learn the basic katas of the **hummingbird style**. Then it was physical training. Guy's physical training was intense to say the least. When it was done every muscle in his body was on fire. It was tough to move let alone get home. Even still he found time to learn more about the basics of fuinjutsu.

The next two years passed in a similar fashion. He spent his time in class reading on fuinjutsu. His test scores were just barely passing. There was really no point in trying for the top score when all he needed to do is pass. Better to spend his time on fuinjutsu. He was currently second in class at taijutsu. At the rate he was progressing he hoped to take second place from Sasuke Uchiha by the end of the year. Of course he had never fought Sasuke without his weights. He had also become closer to Shikamaru and Choji. In his free time he often played shogi with Shikamaru. He had never won but he had gotten close a few times. Choji didn't play but he enjoyed watching. Naruto enjoyed having friends for the first time in his life.

Naruto's taijutsu improved by leaps and bounds. Thanks to his physical training he was already at high Genin speeds with his weights. He was sad to hear that Guy was planning on getting a Genin team so he wouldn't be able to train as much. He was currently working twice as hard to compensate for his sensei's upcoming duties.

The area he improved in the most was fuinjutsu. He was about three quarters way through every book on the subject in the entire village. When it came to the actual practice of making seals he seemed to have some kind of natural talent for the subject. His most valuable piece of fuinjutsu was the gravity seal. As soon as he figured it out his training was revolutionized. Instead of wearing weights that needed to be took off in an emergency. All you had to do was channel chakra to the seal to adjust its effect. It worked so well that Guy even asked for one. Another thing he started doing was selling storage scrolls. It wasn't much but it was nice to have extra money.

With all his progress in seals he was getting closer and closer to learning the **hiraishin**.it would be a couple years before he could actually attempt it but he was finally understood how it worked. Each seal contained a bit of the users own chakra. It works as a sort of link between the users chakra and the chakra in the seal. One thing Naruto learned about why not just anyone could learn the jutsu even with the proper knowledge is that it requires a sensory type ninja. The user of the needed to be able to sense their markers. Apparently sensory types were rare and required natural talent for the art. Luckily Naruto was one such shinobi, albeit an untrained one, unable to tell the difference between different chakras when he first discovered the ability. He was currently working on training his ability to increase its range. All in all he was making solid progress with everything.

The thing that interrupted his routine was Sasuke Uchiha. It happened a few months after the Uchiha Massacre. He was working on his sensory ability when he felt him. Out of curiosity he sat still and let him approach.

"What are you doing here dobe?" Sasuke asked.

"Training, What brings you here?" Naruto answered.

"Training, how about a spar?" Sasuke questioned

"Sure, I have time. Let's stick to taijutsu." Naruto and Sasuke got in ready stance.

In between them a single leaf fell towards the ground. As soon as it hit the ground both boys took off. As the match wore on it was clear Naruto had the advantage in speed he was able to dodge most blows and most of his hits landed. The deciding blow came when Sasuke over threw one of his punches allowing Naruto to slip beneath his guard and deliver the finishing blow to his stomach. Sasuke collapses to the ground struggling to catch his breath.

Naruto was pleased with himself. In all the time they had sparred this was his first time winning one. Naruto sat on the ground. While he had won it had taken a lot out of him. They both sat in silence for a minute breathing heavily.

"How did you beat me?" Sasuke asked.

"Just training. Mostly to increase my speed, reflexes stuff like that. If you want I could help you." Naruto offered.

"What could a dobe like you help me with?" Sasuke scoffed. In response Naruto rolled up his sleeve showing Sasuke his gravity seal.

"This seal works on my body increasing the effect gravity has on it. It's basically a more effective way of weight training. Instead of just my arm or legs my whole body is weighed down. Whenever I deactivate the seal my strength and speed increase. I could put one on you too. All you need to do is channel chakra into it to change its effects." Naruto explained.

"If you had that then why didn't you deactivate it for our fight?" Sasuke questioned.

"There was never a reason. All our fights are training matches. The only reason to do that would be to show off. That's not really my style." Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke sat thinking about how outclassed he was in that fight. Now to find out it wasn't even his full strength. Now he was offering to help him.

"Why are you helping me?" Sasuke questioned.

"Why not? Tell you what in exchange for the seal you stop by and spar with me sometime." Naruto countered.

"You want to spar again?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course, you are a difficult opponent. It took all I had to beat you." Naruto smiled. "Here hold out you wrist."

Sasuke hesitatingly held out his right wrist. Naruto went through a few hand signs and touched his hand to Sasuke's wrist. There was a slight tingle and a mark appeared. Sasuke experimentally channeled some chakra into the seal and was suddenly unable to move. Naruto laughed.

"Believe it or not this happened to me when I first got mine too. Just focus on deactivating the seal and then slowly increase the weight to a good level. You want to be weighed down enough that you feel the resistance when you move but not enough that you can't move freely." Naruto explained.

Sasuke eventually found a comfortable level and ran through some movements to get the hang of it.

"Remember to increase the effects once you get used to weight." Naruto offered.

The rest of their time together was spent spar against each other. Naruto was happy with the arrangement. It was rare that he got to fight someone of a similar skill level. This would hopefully do wonders for his training.

**Tell me what you think so far. **

**Stay tuned**


	3. Chapter 3

**Another time skip. Thanks for your support.**

Naruto woke up early on graduation day. He was excited. Today was the day he became a ninja. Before heading to the academy he spent some time working on the **hiraishin**. He had been tweaking the formula for weeks and using shadow clones to test the jutsu. With every failure he learned more and more about the jutsu. Naruto was beginning to think that with his current knowledge of the jutsu teleporting clones was out of the question. Clones didn't have as much chakra as the original and weren't as very durable. Theoretically, if his formula was correct he could teleport himself but it was too dangerous to attempt. He knew that if at some point it became clear this was the only way to proceed he would do it but he was nowhere near that point yet. He left a few clones to work on the jutsu and left for the day.

When he got to the academy most of the people were already there. Shikamaru and Kiba were currently sleeping in the back. Choji sat between them eating a bag of chips. Sakura and Ino sat arguing in the middle of the room. Closest to the door sat Hinata and Shino. Hinata was poking her fingers together while Shino simply sat stoically. Sasuke sat in front of Kiba. Naruto took the open seat next to Sasuke. Sasuke was brooding as usual. With Naruto's help he had improved vastly even managing to activate his sharingan in an intense spar. It had helped to keep their spars equal. Without their seals, Naruto was the stronger of the two but when Sasuke's sharingan matured they might be equal.

"Are you ready for the exam?" Naruto asked.

"Like I would fail, I'm a Uchiha. I don't know about the rest of you losers." Sasuke grunted.

"Yeah, I was worried about the clone jutsu but the shadow clone jutsu should be enough for me to pass." Naruto replied. "If I'm correct your going to be rookie of the year right?"

"Of course, where did you end up?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto took out his book and sighed. "I'm somewhere in the middle. I had trouble with some of the weaker jutsu." Before Sasuke could reply Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-Sensei arrived. Naruto turned around and woke up Kiba and Shikamaru.

"Alright everyone hopefully after this exam you'll all be genin. Your performance on the exams won't affect your class rankings but if you fail this exam you won't graduate. Do your best and I have no doubt you will all pass." Iruka explained. "First up is the written test then after that is the taijutsu test and finally the ninjutsu test. The ninjutsu test requires you to perform **the substitution jutsu**, **the transformation jutsu**, and **the clone jutsu**." Mizuki-Sensei passed out the written tests.

Naruto looked down at his test. The questions weren't that difficult and he was finished in half and hour. He looked around the room and saw that he was one of the first to finish. He spent the rest of the time fiddling with some of the seals on his arms and hands. The seals weren't all to complicated aside from his gravity seals most just held emergency supplies. Others held things like books, seals he was working on at the moment. One had a few kunai with his most current **hiraishin **formula. Most of the seals weren't visible. If he wanted to he could make all of them invisible but he always kept his gravity seal visible. In a real life or death situation forgetting about it could prove fatal. The other seal he kept visible was his newest seal. This was what he was tinkering with currently.

When condensed it had the simple appearance of a blue circle sitting right in the center of his right palm. In actuality it was one of the most complex seals he had ever worked on. He had gotten the idea from a story about one of the legendary Sannin. Apparently Tsunade was able to continuously store medical chakra in a seal on her forehead. When released it allowed for her wounds to be heal as soon as they were made. Truthfully Naruto lacked the ability to produce medical chakra but it did give him an idea. If medical chakra could be stored and sealed why not normal chakra?

His current version of the seal allows for him to seal some of his chakra inside his palm. There were two methods by which he could unseal his stored chakra. He could chose to release it all at once but with full chakra this could be dangerous. There was also the built in release which would be automatically triggered when his chakra hit absolute zero. Naruto's hope was to somehow be able to extract only a portion of his chakra from the seal but this required more control than he currently had over his chakra. In fact, the only way he was able to seal his chakra the way he had was due to the limitations of the seal.

While it's true the seal stored his chakra there was a limit to the amount of chakra the seal could contain. The seal could only contain about ¾ of his total reserves. This was still more than any of his classmates reserve levels. This coupled with the fact that it was just normal chakra allowed him to store it all at once instead of over a long period. It was extremely draining but quickly filled up. Naruto was trying to figure out how to increase how much chakra the seal could hold when Sasuke nudged him. He looked up to see that everyone had finished the test.

"Alright everyone, let's go outside for the taijutsu test." Everyone got up to follow Iruka-Sensei and Mizuki-Sensei outside. Once they got out to the practice field Iruka explained the rules of the test.

"All of you will be paired up with someone else. It will be a one on one spar taijutsu only. Both Mizuki and I will be observing and scoring you based on your performance. It isn't required for you to win to pass this test. But the opposite is also true. If you fail to show the necessary skill we can't allow you to become genin. Now for the pairings."

This test was no problem for Naruto. He was the best at taijutsu in the class. All in all his matchup vs a civilian student was underwhelming. He did allow his opponent to demonstrate his skills before winning. Naruto suspected this was the reason he was chosen to fight the civilian. Most others wouldn't have given him a chance. Plus Iruka-Sensei already knew Naruto had the taijutsu skill.

Currently Naruto was waiting for his turn to take the ninjutsu test. The only people left in the classroom were Sasuke, Naruto and Ino. Suddenly Iruka opened the door.

Looking over at Sasuke he pointed to him. "You're up."

As he left the classroom Ino called out to him. "Good luck!" She exclaimed.

Sasuke scoffed as he left the room. "Like I need luck."

Naruto seeing Ino's dejected expression decided to comfort her. "Sorry about him. If it makes you feel better he's like that with everyone." Ino's expression shifted to one of anger.

"Yeah well who asked you?" Ino yelled

"I was only trying to be nice. Besides we could be on the same genin team you know." Naruto replies.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Please even if you graduate I'll probably be with Choji and Shikamaru."

"Maybe but I hear the hokage is trying something new this year so you never know." Naruto shrugged.

Iruka entered the room again. Before he could speak Naruto was already on his feet. "Looks like I'm up next." Right before he left the room he turned to Ino. "Good luck, but I doubt you need it." Ino looked down to hide her blushing face.

When Naruto entered the exam room he saw Iruka and Mizuki seated at a table with a few leaf headbands on it." _I guess a few people failed." _Naruto noticed. _"I won't be one of them."_

"Alright Naruto lets start off with the **transformation jutsu.**" Mizuki said.

Naruto nodded and focused on the image of the person he wanted to transform into and performed the jutsu. A cloud of smoke cleared to reveal a perfect image of the third hokage in Naruto's place.

"Nicely done Naruto. Now let's see the **substitution jutsu.**" Iruka commanded. Naruto focused his chakra and suddenly in his place was a chair from the opposite side of the room.

"Impressive now all that's left is the **clone jutsu**." Mizuki encouraged.

"I can't do the **clone jutsu **but I hear any clone will do. Here goes nothing." Naruto's fingers formed a cross sign suddenly the room had 5 Narutos. The original Naruto looked at his clones. "_Man 5 clones great I was aiming for two. Guess my control still needs work." _

"Well done that's a jonin level technique. You've more than earned this." Iruka walked out from behind the table with one of the headbands with him. He held the headband out to Naruto. Naruto's hand trembled as he took the headband. As he tied it around his head he couldn't help but smile. "_I did it! Finally I'll get my chance to prove myself_!" Naruto beamed. Iruka reaches out his hand for a handshake.

"It's been a pleasure having you in class. I've enjoyed being your teacher. Even so I'm going to give you the same advice I gave everyone who passed. Just because you graduated doesn't mean you can stop learning and improving your skills. This is only the beginning of your journey. I look forward to seeing where you end up." Iruka said. Naruto shook his hand.

"Thank you Iruka-Sensei not just for the advice but for everything. I couldn't ask for a better teacher." Naruto said. Iruka rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed.

"Ah stop your gonna make me blush. I better go get Ino for her test. She's the last one before I deliver my report to the hokage." Iruka gave one final wave before leaving the room.

Mizuki sat with a thoughtful expression on his face. "_If I play my cards right I might be able to eliminate the Kyūbi brat before I leave with the scroll."_ Mizuki was startled from his thoughts by Naruto standing in front of him with his hand out.

Naruto hadn't had much interaction with Mizuki and truth be told he always got a sinister feeling from him. He seemed to be deep in thought when Naruto approached him. Whatever feeling Naruto got from him Mizuki was still his Sensei. As he reached out his hand he saw a fake smile form on Mizuki's face. "Thanks for all your help too Mizuki-Sensei." Mizuki grabbed Naruto's hand firmly.

"No problem the pleasure was all mine. Just remember to be here two weeks from now for team assignments." _As if you'll live that long. _Mizuki answered. "Actually I have something for you. It's sort of an extra credit test given out every year to a promising student. If you succeed then you would become the rookie of the year. Meet me after the test is over and I'll explain it to you more."

Naruto looked at him in confusion. "_Didn't Iruka-Sensei say this test didn't affect our rankings? Oh well there's really no harm in hearing him out. Plus it might be fun to rub it in Sasuke's face." _"Sure, I'm honored that I was chosen for this test."

As he turned to leave Naruto couldn't help but be excited for the next step of his journey. He was officially a ninja of the hidden leaf village.


End file.
